A Climate for Change

Fall is always a time for change. The leaves turn brown and fall off the trees, the days get cooler and shorter. As a kid, fall always brought with it a return to school. As an adult, I still find fall to be a time of year where I mentally prepare myself for change almost as a force of habit.

It was interesting then to see the interview Larry King conducted last night with recent TIME coverstory Barack Obama – a US senator with African-American roots from Illinois who has suddenly burst into the spotlight as a potential future president.

In the United States, there appears to be a ground swell of support for changing values in the political and social landscape. Everything from Guantanamo Bay incidents to political and corporate corruption (Jack Abramoff & Enron) to the continued body count in Iraq seems to be driving dissent towards a top-down, “we-know-whats-best-for-you” way of conducting government and business

Obama was recently endorsed by Oprah as her pick for president on a group interview on CNN’s Larry King Live. You may have also seen his witty interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart

What makes Obama special is his focus on values like co-operation, negotiation and inclusion. He speaks a great deal about past presidents like Truman and Lincoln who both led their country out of terrible wars and into new era’s of prosperity.

After 911 there was a need for certainty. The Bush administration delivered. Their tough-talking, damn-the-torpedoes approach delivered on it’s promise of vengeance and quick response.

However, with this year’s arrival of fall it feels like values are again shifting back to the pre-911 sentiments. The long-time common values of life, liberty, freedom and equality are starting to override the desire for security and certainty. It’s only a feeling, but I believe Obama’s sudden rise to public awareness is a manifestation of existing desire rather than a creator of it. Whether he becomes the next president or not, the message of community values is one that people are hungry to hear from their leadership.